SAMURAI: HISTORY AND IMAGE

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities or Social Science Level - Intermediate L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2025 Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain how and why the roles of samurai changed over time. Identify the general political, economic, military, social, and cultural positions of warriors in Japan from the twelfth century to the present, as well as key transitions between them. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Explain how and why images of samurai changed over time. Use texts and visual images to demonstrate how and why a variety of people depicted samurai in different ways for different purposes. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Build a habit of close, active reading in context. Parse texts and contexts - researching and considering the nuances of words, references, and relevant surrounding information - to identify writers' arguments, perspectives, and purposes. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Extract reliable information from a source. Analyze and explain the context, meaning, and significance of a written or visual source to determine what can be learned from it. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Recognize and develop clearly structured, evidence-based arguments. Identify and develop strong thesis statements and the rhetorical structures needed to support them with a clear, logical, evidence-based argument. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Convey original analytical findings clearly and concisely. Briefly and clearly present original conclusions, including reasoning and support. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 7. Situate scholarship on samurai within a larger body of historical analysis. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain how and why the roles of samurai changed over time. Identify the general political, economic, military, social, and cultural positions of warriors in Japan from the twelfth century to the present, as well as key transitions between them. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Explain how and why images of samurai changed over time. Use texts and visual images to demonstrate how and why a variety of people depicted samurai in different ways for different purposes. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Build a habit of close, active reading in context. Parse texts and contexts - researching and considering the nuances of words, references, and relevant surrounding information - to identify writers' arguments, perspectives, and purposes. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Extract reliable information from a source. Analyze and explain the context, meaning, and significance of a written or visual source to determine what can be learned from it. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Recognize and develop clearly structured, evidence-based arguments. Identify and develop strong thesis statements and the rhetorical structures needed to support them with a clear, logical, evidence-based argument. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Convey original analytical findings clearly and concisely. Briefly and clearly present original conclusions, including reasoning and support. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 7. Situate scholarship on samurai within a larger body of historical analysis. Audience: Graduate